Badminton entries are up!

Fingers crossed Mr Rust in 9th gets in off the waitlist. Dream come true if he did for me and his breeder :-)

I remember continually being in the same section as the pair of you at Novice for what seemed like a whole season! That'll have been a year or two ago ;) Best of luck for acceptance and also a good run.
 
Interested to see Vittoria Panizzon has entered on Rock Model. They were a great team to watch, but have to admit it's been such a long time since I saw/read anything about Rock Model I thought he'd been retired.

Good luck to the HHoers on the waitlist.

I'm currently debating whether or not to make the journey down for the weekend.
 
Judge found in favour of Peter from what I remember. I follow on FB too, just such a sweet story.

I do find the new entry criteria a bit disappointing though from the perspective of the amateur rider/'housewives favourite' type of combination - I love seeing Coolgrange Merger and Tony Warr, they are brilliant but will always struggle to get the FEI points to get in easily, and so languish at the bottom of the waitlist. Likewise it is now extraordinarily difficult for the average amateur-with-a-good-horse to get enough points, which sort of takes the gloss off the Badminton dream/experience for me. When I was younger, there were always a handful of people entered who had one good horse and were not 'names' but who went round with a smile on their faces and proved that ordinary people with a special horse could make it. Now, unless you are a pro, you have to wish misfortune on others to get in (well not directly, but you know what I mean!), and TBH it's so much less of an aspirational competition for me because it's virtually impossible to get in unless you are a v good pro.

Not sure I have a solution, but it's just a bit of a shame I think - those 'against the odds' tales were always what helped make Badminton special for me.

I agree, I think the FEI points system is a bit nuts tbh, if someone has the money to go points-chasing to god-knows-where, or is lucky enough to do well at a 3* with few entries, and is then way higher up the list than a horse such as CM who has solid 4* form (and who we'd all love to see there again, I'm sure). I love seeing an amateur go round, and it's getting to be a real rarity.

I'm not sure about having more runners xc but I think they should definitely allow a few more dr starters, since there are always at least a few w/d before and/or after dressage.
 
Interested to see Vittoria Panizzon has entered on Rock Model. They were a great team to watch, but have to admit it's been such a long time since I saw/read anything about Rock Model I thought he'd been retired.

Good luck to the HHoers on the waitlist.

I'm currently debating whether or not to make the journey down for the weekend.

He had to have quite a while off due to injury as from reading her horse hero bog she gave him plenty of time to recover properly and only came back into work last year.
 
I agree, I think the FEI points system is a bit nuts tbh, if someone has the money to go points-chasing to god-knows-where, or is lucky enough to do well at a 3* with few entries, and is then way higher up the list than a horse such as CM who has solid 4* form (and who we'd all love to see there again, I'm sure). I love seeing an amateur go round, and it's getting to be a real rarity.

Did you read the article in Eventing about Nina thingy (Thai girl)'s point-chasing journey fot the Olympics? No shortage of cash or ability to drop everything and fly off to yet another FEI event there! ;)
 
So exciting! I too am looking forward to seeing Henny (I have the hat!) and I shall be sending special good luck vibes to HHOers and the first timers.
 
Top